“Woh” has not been made widely available in North America, sadly. One can find videos online, but the Hindi-language series is not subtitled. The scenes with Lilliput are, however, terrifying in any language, as he plays the part with a more human, greasy, brutal, grounded quality. “Woh” worked with a smaller budget than its American counterparts, forcing the Pennywise character more obviously into the real world. When Woh appears in the corner of an office in episode 3, he looks like he would happily beat you to death with a hammer. To make the character extra creepy, his clown makeup shifted throughout the series. Sometimes he was a “happy” clown, and sometimes a “sad” clown. Sadly, because of the show’s obscurity, neither “Woh” nor Lilliput were mentioned in the Facebook discussion. If you speak Hindi, however, I encourage you to seek it out. It’s available on the Indian streaming service Movies & TV.
The debate, then, was between Tim Curry and Bill Skarsgård as to who could better play a shapeshifting clown.
Curry was the winner, hands down, receiving nearly triple the votes of Skarsgård. This, however, included enthused readers who happily voted for both. Many of the comments were about how Curry provided the template for many viewers, and that Skarsgård was merely riffing on Curry’s performance. It’s notable that Curry, while outfitted with a prosthetic nose and occasionally sporting carnivorous monster teeth, still behaved like a human being might; one could picture Curry’s Pennywise in an actual circus, laughing and entertaining children. His monstrous qualities lurked underneath, making the character that much more terrifying.